Hugo Strange
Hugo Strange is the main antagonist in Batman: Arkham City. He was once a psychiatrist of Arkham Asylum who's been out Gotham City for years working on some sinister experiments. Many patients however died under his supervision that he enjoys twisting minds of others for his desired purposes. While he was out of the country, he studied Batman and compared him to many of Gotham's richiest people and he knew that Batman is Bruce Wayne and then he came to Ra's al Ghul with Batman's identity and the terrorist leader gave him plenty of power for Strange to prove his worth and provided him with limitless resources for his plans for Gotham City. After Joker's takeover on Arkham Island, Strange was able to manipulate Quincy Sharp into setting up Arkham City and putting him in charge by using The Mad Hatter's mind control chemicals while ensuring that inspite of Joker's actions on Arkham that Sharp wins the election as Mayor of Gotham. After Arkam City was built, Strange's mercenaries called the TYGER Guards along with officers of the GCPD begin transfering inmates and convicts from Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison into the facility under strict orders from Mayor Quincy Sharp including every supervillain that Batman fights like the Joker, Two Face, and all except for The Penguin who refuses to leave his museum unprotected. Unlike most prisons, Strange was letting the Inmates do what ever they want for their own fun and survival inside the walls. But when Batman became suspicious as he infiltrates Arkham City to see what was going on, Strange sent his TYGER Guards to capture him but they were no match for him. While he kept sending them after the Dark Knight, he had them falsely arrest innocent people that worked on the wall of Arkham and anyone with evidence against him so that no one will be able to shut him down. While Strange was running the facility, he was being kind to some of the inmates by providing them with food, medical treatment, and anything they want. For Joker, he was rounding up doctors to try and fix him, but because none of them could cure him of the desease that inflicts him, Joker has his men kill them leaving Strange very disappointed and because of Joker being so annoying, so confusing, and too uncomfortable to deal with, he then turns over to the Penguin knowing that he hates Joker and is much more understandable. While interviewing Penguin, he was more than happy to provide him with military grade weapons, Mister Freeze to keep Joker from living, and a shark for his personal needs. And since Batman is not the only one spying on him, Strange looked into the files of the GCPD Officers and compared some of the names to the 10 prisoners that work for Penguin and rats them out to Cobblepot for him and his gang to beat the crap out of them. He also sets up Two Face with Catwoman to make things interesting once Batman returns. After months and months of frequent challenges with confronting Quincy Sharp on the issue, Bruce Wayne finally enters into the political arena to challenge the necessity of Arkham City and questions its existence. Spending millions of dollars for this campaign, Bruce Wayne is able to rally enough public support to stage a press conference right outside the main gates to Arkham City. There, Wayne would officially voice his plans to start his campaign to shut Arkham City down and make Gotham a safer place again. However, to Hugo Strange, this could not be more perfect as he can finally capture Bruce Wayne once and for all, as capturing him as Batman has proven to be nearly impossible. During the live press conference, which was attended even by Vicki Vale and Jack Ryder, Hugo Strange orders his TYGER forces to ambush the event and arrest all attendees with Wayne as the primary target, while also using this opportunity to capture Ryder and remove him as a threat. They accomplish their mission, delivering Wayne to Strange who proceeds to taunt and torture the man with electrical shocks. During this, Strange reveals to Bruce Wayne that he knows the truth about his secret identity as Batman and that he would reveal it to the world should Wayne not cooperate with him and his personnel in Arkham City. With Wayne in his grasp at long last, Strange is mere hours away from enacting Protocol 10 and has Wayne thrown into the prison where he would soon become a target and, theoretically, be quickly killed by the various gangs. Strange personally communicates Penguin and informs him of Wayne's arrest, knowing of Copplepot's hatred of the Wayne family, to ensure that Penguin and his forces are waiting at the main gate for Wayne's arrival. As Wayne is sent in with Ryder and another political prisoner, Strange watches and announces their new arrival to the citizens of Arkham City, enticing dozens of bloodthirsty killers to attack him. However, Wayne is able to easily outmaneuver all his attackers and attempts to save Ryder, only to be knocked out by Penguin's thugs. Regardless, Wayne defeats all of Penguins thugs, breaking Cobblepot's hand in the process, and escapes into the bowels of Arkham City. With all his pawns and plans in place throughout the entire prison compound, Strange delightfully begins the cat and mouse game he has been planning for years between him and the Dark Knight. With his TYGER operatives, his immense power and authority over Arkham City, and his countless connections with Batman's most dangerous and violent foes, Strange is confident in his abilities to best Batman and assume his mantle in order to conquer Gotham and pave the way for a glorious future comprised of fame, wealth, power, and immortality. As Strange watches Bruce escape from the madness of the various gangs, his attention is soon diverted with the news that Catwoman is about to be executed by Two-Face, an event that was also orchestrated by Strange. While Strange sees this as inconsequential and amusing, Bruce is able to acquire his suit and equipment again with the help of Alfred and sets off to stop the assassination as Batman. With Arkham City as the ultimate experiment to test Batman and observe his abilities, Strange orders his TYGER troops to watch Batman's every movement during their patrols from their helicopters and study his moves extensively so that they will be prepared to take him down when the time is right. In the meantime, Strange hires the help of Deadshot, a contract assassin, in targeting and killing the biggest threats to his position and plans, and has him smuggled into Arkham under the guise as another inmate. Strange gives Deadshot full access to all the equipment he needs as well as a PDA to store his hit list, which includes Jack Ryder, who has found out about Strange's hypnotic techniques, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, both marked as separate individuals, and three other political figures. While Strange doubts that Deadshot could kill Batman, he counts on him to take care of the other political prisoners and serve as a further diversion for the Dark Knight as he perfects his plans for Protocol 10. As he approaches the commencement of Protocol 10, Strange would allow violent crime to chaotically erupt in the streets of Arkham City, including Penguin blowing up the highways, Riddler abducting the entire police and medical staff from the Gotham Cathedral, and gang warfare consuming the streets. Strange allows as much chaos to occur in order to obtain authorization to enact Protocol 10, the same reason that Strange continues to supply Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face with weapons. As Batman rescues Freeze, puts Penguin and his gang out of commission, rescues Jack Ryder, and apprehends Deadshot after the contract killer murders three political prisoners, Strange realizes Batman is becoming much more of a risk while in Arkham City than he anticipated and resolves himself to employ psychological mind games against the Dark Knight. With Crime Alley firmly entrenched in Arkham City, Strange has the murder scene of Bruce's parents redrawn and a bouquet of roses placed next to the chalk outlines of their bodies along with a tape reel that contains a monologue by Strange himself taunting the deaths of Batman's parents and insulting his very motivation for becoming a hero. Meanwhile, Sharp finally begins to break from Strange's hold when he realizes just how far Strange has gone and attempts to find out who are his benefactors by examining all the financial accounts related to Arkham City and tracing them back to it's source. However, Strange suspected that Sharp was resisting the hold of his mind control drugs and was becoming a loss canon and had him arrested under the pretense of committing treason. With all the power and authority over Arkham City and TYGER under his complete control, Strange concludes that Mayor Sharp has finally outlived his usefulness and orders for incarceration in Arkham City, using the evidence of his crimes in Arkham Asylum as reason to incarcerate him. This makes Strange the De facto leader of Gotham City with the entire security force of Gotham under his complete control to bend to his every whim. After usurping his power and authority, Strange has Sharp dumped into Arkham City where he quickly becomes a target of the various gangs because of his affiliation with Arkham City and the rumors of the abused and murdered inmates of the old Asylum at his hands. To ensure that Sharp becomes a victim of the lawlessness, Strange announces his location over the announcement system, encouraging the inmates to "give him the welcome he deserves". However, due to the continued bravery of Batman, Sharp's life is spared, who then recounts to the Dark Knight how he and Strange formed their alliance and what his role was in the massive conspiracy. Sharp admits that he agreed to work for Strange and set up Arkham City once Strange informed him back at the asylum of his powerful connections that would fund his mayoral campaign and ensure of his victory. Over the years however, Sharp began to see Strange's true nature and wanted to stop, but was unable to because of a combination of his mind control drugs and the knowledge Strange possessed of the former warden's heinous actions. Batman, now armed with the knowledge that there is another external party involved with Arkham City funding Strange's operations, lets the mayor go and continues in his attempts to stop them. Two hours later, Strange calls an emergency meeting with the City Council where he informs them of a riot deep within Arkham City that might cause a massive breakout, caused by the military weapons that Strange has been providing to the gangs there over the previous months, and that Protocol 10 is the only option available. While the City Council members are both shocked and disappointed by Strange's apparent lack of control over the prison, they ultimately give him permission to enact Protocol 10: finally revealed to be the systematic destruction of Arkham City and the assassination of the entire inmate population. Under Strange's commands, TYGER assault helicopters break off from their patrols and start tracking all prisoners that they can find and begin killing them on sight. Missiles are launched deep into the heart of Arkham City, hitting the Iceberg Lounge, Sionis Industries, and the Solomon Wayne Courthouse directly, killing hundreds of people in mere minutes. While Batman is set to pursue Talia al Ghul, who was stationed in Arkham City to aid in her father's operations, and rescue her from Joker, with whom she formed a pact with, he ultimately decides to go after Strange first at the pleading of both Alfred and Oracle. As Strange oversees Protocol 10, Catwoman breaks into the Confiscated Goods Vault in an attempt to retrieve her ill gotten gains. Strange is further pleased by this turn of events and sends in his troops to kill the feline bugler once and for all just as Batman is caught underneath rubble from the various missile attacks on the Steel Mill. Strange orders his men to teach Catwoman one final lesson and to send a squad to retrieve Batman's body once Protocol 10 has concluded. However, Catwoman is able to defeat her opponents and rescues Batman from underneath the rumble, leaving all her loot behind. While TYGER helicopters are murdering all inmates in the city, Strange sends ground troops to personally massacre all the political prisoners and inmates he has made contact with as well as target Bane and retrieve all the Titan shipments in his possession. However, Batman spoils these attacks and, while fighting his way through the processing center to Wonder Tower, is interrupted by Strange through the Arkham City monitors. Holding a political prisoner hostage and threatening to inject chemicals into his throat through a syringe that would cause an overdose, Strange forces Batman to stop fighting and listen to his words. As Strange taunts Batman and blames everything on him, TYGER forces surround Batman as Strange reveals that he has been working together with another individual who also served as his private backer. After declaring his victory over Batman, Strange sends the orders to his TYGER troops to kill the Dark Knight once and for all. Despite their overwhelming numbers, Batman subdues all the troops and proceeds to the lowest foundations of Wonder Tower. There, Batman finds the results of a bloody massacre between TYGER operatives and new inmates who were killed instead of being processed. In addition, it is discovered through Strange's PA system announcements that Arkham City is only the first of a series of prisons planned to be built with centers scheduled to be open in both Keystone City and Metropolis by the end of the month alone. As Batman gets closer to reaching the highest foundations of Wonder Tower, Strange augments security with additional troops in the subway system and orders them to shoot anyone on sight. Nonetheless, Batman is able to reach the Security Center at the apex of Wonder Tower. Batman subdues all of the TYGER guards despite their increased strength and shuts down Protocol 10 down by disabling all the technology in Wonder Tower, rendering all TYGER helicopters and weaponry useless. After receiving several bone shattering hits from the Dark Knight, Strange reveals the truth to Batman that he intends to replace him as the new Gotham hero and savior and gloats how he has become a much better hero than the Dark Knight could've ever been because he has finally eliminated all crime in Gotham City. Declaring that he will soon have command over forces beyond comprehension, Strange is brutally stabbed and run through by Ra's al Ghul, revealed as the silent benefactor of the project through his empire. It becomes apparent that Strange's ultimate goal was to replace Ra's and assume control over the League of Assassins and obtain the powers of immortality for himself through the Lazarus Pit. With Batman out of the way, Strange would be able to seize complete control over Gotham and multiple other cities as the new Batman with TYGER and the League serving as his armies. Ra's, however reveals that he never had any intentions of giving Strange any position of permanent power and was simply using him as a pawn to eliminate crime in Gotham, telling the dying professor that the only thing that he has proven was that Batman was much better than him. In turn, Strange, who had anticipated a possible betrayal, employs his contingency plan: Protocol 11. Seconds later, the self destruct protocols engage and Wonder Tower explodes sending Batman and Ra's plummeting down to the ruined city hundreds of feet below, while Strange is consumed with his tower and TYGER guards, securing Batman's identity and ending the madness and plans of Hugo Strange once and for all. Batman would be able to safely land on the ground while Ra's Al Ghul is killed by his own hand after a failed suicide attack on Batman that ended with him being impaled by his own sword and violently landing directly on the Arkham City logo. With the chaos and deception that is Arkham City no longer a mystery and Strange's criminal status now known, Sharp's martial law is overturned and Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department are given back full authority by the City Council. With their full jurisdiction restored, Gordon and the GCPD begin to promptly arrest all TYGER forces and prepare to transfer all the inmates to secure locations, rescue all the falsely imprisoned, claim all illegal weapons, and shut down the site once and for all. Over the following weeks, after much chaos and destruction, TYGER would be disbanded and removed from power and Gotham, all political prisoners would be rescued, Arkham City would officially be shut down for good, and all planned constructions of further mega prisons in other cities would be cancelled, ending all of Strange's operations and leaving his reputation and legacy in tatters forever. Ultimately, while Strange believed that his plans would create an honorable legacy for himself, he would only be seen as a power hungry madman who's megalomaniac and insane desires led to the death of thousands of individuals and left half of Gotham City in ruins. With years of planning and preparation met with betrayal, Hugo Strange died a broken man who would be seen as nothing more than another insane criminal on par with the very super-criminals he tried so hard to eliminate. Instead of becoming the hero and savior of Gotham City he thought he would, he had ironically became the very aspect of Gotham he despised and sought out to destroy. Category:Main Antagonists Category:Villains Category:Deceased Category:Masterminds